ABSTRACT
Liostenogaster flavolineata lives in small polygynous colonies consisting probably of both related and unrelated individuals. Behaviour differences are apparent between females, which are correlated with age. There is also a partially developed dominance system. Stenogastrinae vary greatly in their nest architecture, many nests toeing species typical. Colony sizes vary between species from one or two to perhaps as high as ten females per nest. Extended periods of observation on a small number of nests show that actual numbers of colony females will be slightly larger because a few females spend little time on the nest. The future direction of the work is towards determining the factors influencing the tendency of females to stay or leave the home colony, since this is fundamental to the determination of the small colony sizes seen in the Stenogastrinae.
